How to Set Up a Self-hosted WordPress Blog in Thirty Minutes (or Less)

Some folks will tell you that you can make money online without a blog or website. That’s true. But I strongly hold that you can never make as much as those who have blogs do — that’s if you really make anything more than crumbs.

Every lucrative online business requires you to run a blog as your web-based showroom. And that’s why the most successful online entrepreneurs — those who make 100% of their income from the internet — all have their own blogs.

While you can establish your online presence with free hosting platforms like Blogger, Typepad, and WordPress.com, you will be better off with a self-hosted blog (preferably on WordPress.org) — for three major reasons:

1. Control

Running your blog on Blogger or WordPress.com is like building your house on rented land. Technically, the blog remains the property of the host site (Blogger or WordPress.com). And that’s why the default URL includes the host’s name (as in yourblog.wordpress.com or yourblog.blogspot.com).

You may think the blog is yours because you own the content. But the truth is, the host site reserves the right to pull down your blog or do anything to your content whenever and however they want. And worse, they can pull down your blog even when you’ve not in any way violated their terms and conditions. Both Linda Ikeji and Jide Ogunsanya (Ogbongeblog) have been victims of these. What could be more frustrating than being punished for an offence you never committed?

In addition, some free hosting sites like WordPress.com will not allow you to monetize your blog, even when it is more than ripe for that. Instead, they run their own ads on your blog and make money from your content. What could be closer to enslavement than having someone else reap the fruits of your labor?

However, with a self-hosted WordPress blog, you will own your domain (as in yourblog.com), and you will be in full control of your blog and its content. You will be able customize your blog as you want, and you will be able to monetize it anyhow you want.

2. Flexibility

With several thousands of WordPress plugins available online, you can customize your self-hosted WordPress blog by adding any functionalities you need.

You can embed a forum on your site (just as I once did on this blog). You can turn your blog into an online store. You can turn it into a directory. You can turn it into an autoblog that updates itself automatically with fresh content. And you can include a wide range of other amazing features. This is impossible on Blogger, WordPress.com, and other free hosting platforms.

So, think of anything you can do online, you can do it with a self-hosted WordPress blog.

3. Seriousness and responsibility

Do you know why most of the abandoned blogs on the internet are freely hosted blogs? Because some element of irresponsibility and nonchalance usually comes with getting something for free.

You’ll find it much easier to abandon a free blog because, of course, you got it for free. But by starting out on a paid, self-hosted platform, you’ll be motivated to take your blogging seriously. And even in the face of challenges, the thought won’t cross your mind to abandon the blog you’ve spent some money on.

4. Positive signals

Another advantage of a self-hosted blog is that it sends signals that you know your stuff and that you’re confident about what you’re doing.

Using a freely hosted blog creates the impression that you’re kind of experimenting with your blog. And the truth is, nobody takes a “trial blog” seriously.

There are certainly many more benefits to self-hosting your blog. But even with the few reasons given, I’m sure you now understand why most of the web’s biggest blogs are self-hosted on WordPress. And you can now explain why many bloggers keep migrating from Blogger and WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress, and rarely the other way round.

Now, this is where many people get stuck: They assume — erroneously, though — that setting up a self-hosted WordPress blog is complicated and time-consuming. They think it’s something only the tech-savvy can do. But it’s not!

Others think they’ll have to spend a fortune to set up a self-hosted blog. Again, this is not true!

You can set up your own self-hosted WordPress blog within a couple of minutes — and for just few bucks. Just follow these steps:

Step 1: Choose a good hosting company

Your first step towards creating a self-hosted WordPress blog is to register your domain name and “host” your site with a reputable web hosting service.

Hosting your blog simply means acquiring some web storage space that your blog will occupy. So, the web hosting service you choose will reserve this storage space for your blog so that everyone can easily access your blog. Without a hosting package, you can’t have a functional blog.

When choosing a web hosting service, here are some major features and factors that you should look out for:

Disk space: This is the amount of web storage capacity that will be allocated to your blog. Once you exhaust this capacity you will have to buy a plan that offers more storage space, else you won’t be able to add more content to your blog. For a start, choose a hosting package that offers at least 5GB of disk space.

Monthly bandwidth: This is the total amount of data used up during all activities on your blog within a month, such as when visitors open your pages or download files. As a website or blog attracts more traffic, user activities consume more data, and so the monthly bandwidth increases. If your bandwidth is exhausted before the end of the month, your blog will be inactive and will not be accessible to users until the beginning of the next month, unless you quickly pay for an expansion. So, you should choose a hosting package or plan that offers enough bandwidth to handle huge traffic.

Control panel: This is the user interface through which you can access the various tools and services offered by your web host. Most web hosting services offer the cPanel control panel, while some offer other control panels that are equally as user-friendly as cPanel.

Support: Most reputable web hosting services offer live-chat support through which you can contact their support staff and have an instant chat session with them whenever you need answers to any questions or help with any issues. Although, you also have the option to contact a web host’s support staff by email, you won’t get an instant reply.

Hostgator is the web hosting service I’m using for this blog, and I’ve never had any issues with them since I started using them about five years ago. But their prices are somewhat on the high side, I must admit. (Hostgator charges me $11.95 — around N4,000 — per month!)

However, there are much cheaper alternatives that also provide high quality services. I particularly recommend Namecheap because I have thoroughly tested their services, and I’ve found them to be of good quality. In fact, 3 of my blogs are presently hosted with them.

Right now, Namecheap offers one-year domain name registration and web hosting for just $20.

Even most Nigerian web hosting services won’t come this cheap. So, I advise you to go with Namecheap.

Here’s a summary of what Namecheap offers:

Cheap first-term and renewal prices

20GB disk space and unlimited bandwidth

You can host at least 3 or ( even unlimited, depending on the plan you choose)

As for Nigerian web hosting services, I don’t recommend them at the moment because most of them offer crappy services and very poor support, all of which can drive you crazy. This explains why the biggest Nigerian blogs and websites are hosted by foreign hosting services.

After your payment has been successfully processed, you’ll receive some emails from Namecheap. This might take some minutes, though.

Look for the email with the subject, “Your Hosting Welcome Guide for yourdomain.com”. That email your cPanel login details and other important stuff regarding your hosting package.

Step 2: Install WordPress

Now, open the Hosting Welcome Guide email you received from Namecheap.

Click the cPanel URL or copy and paste the link in your browser’s address bar, and hit the enter button.

You’ll be requested to enter your cPanel username and password. Refer to the Hosting Welcome Guide email and copy these details from there. Once you’ve entered your username and password, click “Log in”.

The next page is the cPanel dashboard. Here you’ll see a number of different sections, each comprising many icons. Now, scroll down to the bottom of the page. The last section is “SOFTACULOUS APPS INSTALLER”, under which you’ll see a folder icon that bears the same name.

Click on the “Softaculous Apps Installer” link. This will take you to a page showing many icons. You’ll see the WordPress icon first.

Hover your mouse pointer on the WordPress icon, and click the “Install” button.

The next page you’ll see is a fairly long one with a number of empty fields that you have to complete.

On the next page, you’ll be able to define the credentials for your new WordPress installation. In the “Software Setup” section, delete the “wp” in the “In Directory” field, and leave the space blank. Don’t change anything under “Database Settings”.Then scroll down to the “Site Settings” section to enter your preferred name and description for your site. Both can be changed later. Next, scroll down to the “Admin Account” section to set your username and password (I strongly recommend that you change your username from the default “admin” to something else). Finally, click the “Install” button at the bottom of the page.

[In case you get an error message stating that some errors were found, just click the checkbox next to “Select the checkbox to overwrite all files and continue”, and scroll down to click the “Install” button again.]

Once the installation is complete, you will be taken to a confirmation page displaying your username and password. You will also receive a confirmation email containing these credentials.

Step 3: Confirm that your blog is now live

To confirm that your blog is now active, visit your domain URL. You should see your blog displaying the default WordPress theme and your blog title.

Step 4: Login to your blog’s back-end

To access your blog’s backend, visit yourdomainname.com/wp-admin (change yourdomainname to your real domain name). Once you’re on that page, you will see a page similar to the following screenshot:

Enter your username and password (as given in the confirmation email you received after installing WordPress), and you’ll be redirected to your WordPress dashboard, where you can gain access to the various aspects of your blog, such as the design, content, plugins, and so on.

Step 5: Install a theme

Although the default WordPress theme looks basic and cool, you can decide to choose another one from the hundreds of free themes available, by following these steps:

Click “Appearance,” and then click “Themes”

On the Themes page, click “Add New”

Search for themes using any of the features listed or by entering keywords in the search box

Step 6: Install necessary plugins

To enhance the function of your blog, you will need to install certain plugins. Although you might need to install more plugins later (depending on your needs), the following are important plugins that you should install first:

Write the name of the plugin you want to install in the search box, and click “Search”

Choose the plugin from the results page, install, and activate

Adjust the plugin settings to suit your needs

Step 7: Write necessary pages

After installing the necessary plugins, you should write your blog’s pages by clicking on the appropriate links on your dashboard.

Before you start blogging, try to create the following pages:

An “About” page that tells your readers about you and your blog

A “Contact” page through which your readers can contact you

A “hire me” page that highlights the various services you can render for your readers (especially if you’re a freelancer)

Step 8: Start blogging!

Once you’ve created the necessary pages, your blog is properly set up and good to go. And you can now start publishing posts on a consistent basis. In fact, you’re now a blogger!

But if for any reason you think you can’t handle the whole process yourself, you can contact me to assist you with the set up. I will readily do that for you — provided you registered through any of the Host1Plus links on this page.

Over to you!

If you have comments or questions, feel free to share your thoughts below. Also, use the buttons below to share this post on your social media accounts so that others who may be interested in creating a blog can do so by following the step-by-step instructions in this post.

Affiliate disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you purchase a hosting plan from Host1Plus — which does not in any way affect the price you pay. I only recommend services that I use and genuinely trust. And any income I make through the links will be used to sustain this blog and create a better user experience for you. Thanks!

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honestly i am highly impressed with your coaching and your write ups online, for past two weeks i have known you i have gain tremendously from you and may God bless your efforts. i am yet to create my own blog name and how i wish i can achieve more training from you not only online in practical aspect as well i mean (physical training)if it is possible i would so much appreciate it.
thank you God bless you

I recently created a WordPress blog for my business.
I have been blogging on blogger platform at http://www.dollarground.com, I discovered that more money is actually made with a WordPress blog than blogger, then I created a WordPress blog. You can see it here http://www.blogincomes.com

Mr. Abass, I am very pleased that I came across your post and your e-book which was free. they were very helpful to me. As I went through your book I found out that it is a real guide to people in Nigeria who are interested in online business. I will follow the steps you have given and if i have any confusion I will also contact you. Thank you for this book. More POWER TO YOUR ELBOW.

Honestly, I have assimilated a lot from this blog, thanks Mr Abass. But am having an issue with ordering hosting plan from a foreign company because of this Diamond Debit Card Ban. Please Master Abass, can you help me Order a hosting at namecheap.com, while I pay you directly via bank?

Mr Abass thank you for all the effort you have put into this site in order to educate and to alleviate people of financial hardship. am a wannabe blogger. so I have this one question: does it cost money to get a domain name?… #you made mention of Free Domain Name severally.

Mr Abass that you for all the effort you have put into this site in order to educate and to alleviate them of financial hardship. am a wannabe blogger. so I have this one question: does it cost money to get a domain name?… #you made mention of Free Domain Name severally.

Ok this just helped me with understanding the whole “self hosting” saga. I already bought a domain name. Already hav a blog with some content. so if I move to wordpress. org will it have any effect on my previous domain name with . com? is wordpress. org the hosting plartform itself or why do I see things like bluehost or godaddy when WP is showing me options for hosting? if I self host, will I still continue with the word press environment which I am already accustomed to or I will b working in a whole new setting? Is the cost for bandwith seperate from the cost of monthly hosting or only if bandwith is exhausted then I wil hav to pay? Will self-hosting hav any effect on my previous content, hope it will not b like starting it all from scratch? Kindly respond to each of these for me Mr Abbas, May God add to ur wealth of knowledge.

Hi, Abbas, I enjoy reading your articles. To a layman like me, you make things easier. Though I’ve really ventured fully into online marketing, but with you at my back, I hope to make a success of it soonest. Pls permit me the privilege to come to you whenever I encounter problems. Once more thanks

Nice writeup sir abass. But i think its not advisable to use the free domain given to you by your host. Its better you buy a domain from a domain registrar like namecheap, godaddy etc and then host it with a web host like blue host, hostgator etc. If you do it the other way round, you will not have full rights to your free domain i.e you cannot transfer it. Just google and read what am talking abouthttp://www.successincentives.blogspot.com

You actually have full rights to your domain. The only issues you might have is that it might take time to move your domain to another registrar. Secondly, you might have to forfeit your initial payment with the first registrar. As for you not being able to transfer it, that’s not true. But it’s not usually fast and straightforward.

Thank you very much Abass for your wonderful post. You really opened my eyes on blogging, actually the difference between setting up blog through WordPress.com and WordPress .org. Your post is truly very helpful. Thank you a lot Abass.

Dear Abass, people like you are hard to come by, thanks for the great information you are sharing. I wanted getting a self hosted website with WordPress. can you send me some details, I shall be grateful.

I can help you set up a self-hosted WordPress blog for just N12,000. That price covers the cost of domain name registration, hosting plan purchase, WordPress installation, and customization. Let me know when you’re ready.

Good morning Abass,
Your yesterday’s mail took me to the post about blog setup, and its awesome. But sir, I have a problem, I gave out my laptop to my son since I couldn’t afford a new one for him. For months now I have been working with my TECNO tablet. I am handicapped as a tablet can not perform blog setup as a desktop or laptop would. I am presently planning how I get a tokunmbo desktop since that on is cheaper. That post will afford me the bogs I need for my online business as am about to retire. Thanks though.

Honestly speaking, I just found out about your website today and I must say, out of all the websites I’ve been reading on internet business, yours is the most informative. Just today alone, I’ve read not less than 10 articles here. From what I gather, you like what you do and you don’t just do it for the profits. That’s rare. I’ve been gathering information on how to start a blog recently, and I just want to be well informed before I venture into it. And also I need to have enough start-up capital for things such as a laptop and subscription, domain name and web hosting. I have the passion for blogging, and I think it’s something I’m willing to do 100%. Any advice for me?

I`m really interesting in reading your awesome guide post on a subject that every internet marketer should learn about and know the ins and outs of the entire process. It`s how to set up wordpress blog on self hosted.
The first time (since 3 years ago) I bought a $27 ebook on how to do that. However I found your post more valuable than that ebook.